February 14, 2025
Food Is Medicine Summit focuses on opportunities, challenges
Medicaid waivers provide momentum, but getting food to people with medically specific nutritional needs or food and housing instability requires many organizations.
Audience members at the second Food Is Medicine Summit listen to panelists discuss opportunities and challenges organizations have meeting community nutrition needs.
More than 250 policymakers, researchers, health care professionals, and representatives of community organizations gathered at History Colorado Center for the second Colorado Food Is Medicine Summit in December 2024. The summit was presented by Kaiser Permanente and Project Angel Heart.
Food Is Medicine initiatives cover a spectrum of programs from food security to medically tailored meals for people with ongoing conditions. The idea is that proper nutrition is the foundation to better health at every stage of life and can lead to improved health outcomes among people with chronic health conditions.
Research shows Food Is Medicine programs could greatly reduce hospitalizations and health care costs. Despite this promise, many organizations in Colorado expect flat or declining state assistance in 2025, in the face of a predicted $750 million state budget shortfall.
Panelists representing organizations from Colorado Springs to Weld County shared a collective sense of optimism about their ability to improve the health of community members through innovative nutrition programs. But they also acknowledged that their efforts face challenges.
From connecting patients with food and nutrition resources to conducting research, to shaping policy, and delivering this work in communities and homes — our efforts complement one another in powerful ways. Jeff Krawcek, MD
Jeff Krawcek, MD, president and executive medical director of Kaiser Permanente in Colorado, provided opening remarks.
“While we all play different roles — from connecting patients with food and nutrition resources to conducting research, to shaping policy, and delivering this work in communities and homes — our efforts complement one another in powerful ways,” Dr. Krawcek said of the different organizations represented at the summit.
In breakout sessions, participants at the sold-out event discussed Food Is Medicine programs focused on aging, maternal and child health, state policy, Medicaid, the link between housing and nutrition, and creating equitable access to Food Is Medicine programs.
Speakers and panelists from Kaiser Permanente in Colorado included:
- Jeff Krawcek, MD, president and executive medical director, who provided opening remarks
- Wendolyn Gozansky, MD, MPH, vice president and chief quality officer
- Tracy Lippard, MD, executive director of community health
- Kathleen Westcoat, senior director of Medicaid and charitable programs
- Cheryl Kelly, PhD, MPH, director of community health, evaluation and measurement
Kaiser Permanente screens for, evaluates, and makes referrals to address the social health needs of members and patients. Kaiser Permanente has a commitment to supporting Food Is Medicine programs across the state.
In her opening address, Kate Johnston, chief operating officer for Project Angel Heart, highlighted recent national developments that give momentum to Food Is Medicine programs, such as Medicaid waivers that allow states to use federal funds to provide support for unmet social needs like food and housing.
Event participants also attended panel discussions where experts talked about logistical challenges to improving access to healthy food for everyone in Colorado.
In another panel discussion about the nutritional needs of older adults, Dr. Gozansky, a geriatrician, said that sense of smell and sense of taste can change in older adults, and they often experience dental issues. Providing them with foods they need and like from nutritional and cultural perspectives, but in a way that accounts for these physical changes, is important to their health. Older adults also more commonly face transportation barriers for medical care and grocery shopping.
The collective impact of everyone addressing these challenges is huge, Johnston said. She cited the findings of a study estimating that if every U.S. adult who needs medically tailored meals received them there would be 1.6 million fewer hospitalizations and a collective savings of $13.6 billion annually.
